Harry's Animagus Holiday
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: A group of Hogwarts students go on an Animagus training for a week during the summer holidays just before the beginning of their sixth year, accompanied by Professors McGonagall and Snape. Completely AU, partly OOC, sick!Harry


**Harry's Animagus Holiday**

After a long day of doing chores in the Dursleys' garden under the hot summer sun, Harry dragged himself up into his room, noticing a bit unnerved that Hedwig had returned with a letter for him.

'_Probably from some of my friends fretting over me because of Sirius' death_,' he mused, unwillingly taking the letter from Hedwig. '_From Hogwarts?_' he thought in surprise, having already received his OWL results two weeks ago. He quickly broke the seal on the back of the envelope.

'_Dear Mr. Potter_,' it said,

'_We have decided to offer a voluntary Animagus class for all sixth year students, who want to learn the Animagus transformation. The class will take place in my holiday home in Italy during the last week in August. Professors McGonagall and Snape will accompany the group and will act as your guardians during the week._

_There will be classes in the mornings and in the evenings, while we are planning several excursions to magical places around Italy in the afternoons._

_If you're interested to participate, please send us your reply immediately. In that case, this letter will turn into a Portkey on Sunday morning at ten o'clock. It will take you to Hogwarts, from where the group will take a Portkey to Italy together. Please bring your trunk and an additional bag for the week in Italy, since you will return to Hogwarts by Portkey in time for the Sorting._

_Please note that this week won't be a holiday week but a study week involving much work for all participants. I also want you to understand that you won't be able to transform into your Animagus form after a week, but you'll get a head start and will be training twice a week during the school year._

_We hope to see you on Sunday,_

_Albus Dumbledore._'

Harry read through the letter three times, not able to believe his luck. '_I'm going to get away from here a week earlier? Plus, I'll be able to learn how to become an Animagus! That's absolutely fantastic!_' he thought, sitting down at his desk to formulate his reply.

'_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_Thanks a lot for the invitation. Of course I'd like to participate in the course, and I'm looking forward to it._

_Best regards and I'll see you on Sunday,_

_Harry Potter_'

"Hedwig, I'm sorry, but I need you to fly back to Hogwarts and hand this to the Headmaster or to Professor McGonagall," he told his owl, gently fastening the letter to her foot.

Hedwig gave him a knowing shoo-hoo and took off into the night, while Harry lay down on his bed, happily thinking, '_Only five more days and I'll get away from here!_' He reached for the last piece of Mrs. Weasley's birthday cake, which he had carefully spared to last until his return to Hogwarts when he'd finally be able to eat a proper meal. '_Only five more days until I'll get something to eat other than bread and water_.'

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The next few days passed much too slowly for Harry's liking. On Saturday afternoon, he finally told the Dursleys that he was going to leave the next day, much to their pleasure. When he woke up on Sunday morning, he told Hedwig to fly to Hogwarts, brought her cage as well as Professor Dumbledore's letter down with him, and asked his aunt to give him his trunk.

"Before you leave, you have to mow the lawn and weed the garden," Petunia told him, causing Harry to put the glass of water, which he had just filled for himself, down and hurry to do his chores in the garden in spite of the rain that was pouring down on this morning to finish in time to take the Portkey.

Harry nearly flew back into the house, grabbing his trunk, the cage, and the parchment, only seconds before he felt the pull behind his navel, knowing that the Portkey would take him to Hogwarts. Seconds later, he found himself in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Sighing in relief, he looked around, noticing that their group consisted of eight students. Apart from Harry, the only other Gryffindor students were Hermione and Neville. Blaise Zabini, and Terry Boot were there as well as Susan Bones, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Millicent Bulstrode.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted excitedly, pulling him into a bear hug. "I'm so glad that you're here as well. I had hoped that Hedwig would show up, so that I could send you a letter, but unfortunately she didn't, and not even Ron wrote to me."

"Since he's not here, I suppose he wasn't allowed to come," Harry replied, slightly disappointed. "Sorry, I wanted to write to you, but Hedwig only came back from Hogwarts yesterday. If you ask me, she must have a boyfriend here, because she seems to have spent a lot of time here during the holidays. Dumbledore even sent his letter with her, and she was the one, who brought my OWL results."

"Ah right, the OWLs, Harry..."

To Harry's great relief, the Headmaster interrupted the girl's tirade before it could even begin by addressing the students. "I want to remind you that you're leaving for a study week, not for holidays. You will participate in this summer class as classmates indifferently to your current Hogwarts House. You will not be able to earn points for your House, and your teachers won't take points from your House. However, they can of course give you detention or punish you as they see fit. Any of you, who doesn't give her or his best during the week, will be sent home and has to come back to Hogwarts the normal way. Please leave your trunks here; the house elves will take them to your dormitories. Only take your bags with you. Now, I wish you good luck for your Animagus practice and enjoy your study holiday."

When Dumbledore stepped back, Professors McGonagall and Snape approached the students, a plush snake in their hands. "Please grab the snake; it's our Portkey," Snape instructed the students, causing everyone to obey at once.

An instant later, Harry felt the usual pull behind his navel, before everything turned around. Soon, the group was standing in a huge entrance hall, where they were greeted by Dobby and another house elf, whom Dobby introduced as Professor Dumbledore's personal house elf Twinkle. The elves led them into a very bright living room, where Professor Snape addressed the students.

"First of all, you will head up to your rooms and unpack. We'll meet here again at exactly twelve o'clock for lunch. Now I'm going to tell you your room numbers. Please make sure to listen and note that neither the parings nor the rooms are negotiable. Bones and Brocklehurst Room One, Bulstrode and Granger Room Two, Boot and Longbottom Room Three, and Potter and Zabini Room Four."

'_Oh no!_' Harry thought in absolute annoyance. '_Leave it to the greasy git to pair me with Zabini instead of Neville. Well, at least it's not Malfoy_,' he realised and climbed the stairs, following the professors and his classmates. When he entered the room after Blaise, he stopped dead in his tracks. '_Beautiful_,' he thought, looking though the huge window straight in the park, where he could see a small lake, surrounded by a ring of pine trees that was interrupted by a few tiny beaches.

"That looks extremely inviting. We should go out for a midnight swim; don't you think so?" Blaise suddenly pulled Harry out of his reverie.

"Yeah, that would be great," Harry replied eagerly, looking around the room for the first time. It was nearly as big as the dormitory in Gryffindor and was held in different shades of blue and white. He slowly unpacked his belongings, letting his view wander out to the lake every few minutes.

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After a Hogwarts-like lunch, during which Harry could hardly eat anything because he felt full after a few bites and because his throat felt unnervingly scratchy, which didn't help to fuel his appetite, the group was ushered into a huge practice room. The room was equipped with a dozen comfortable sofas and chairs, and Professor McGonagall motioned the students to take a seat. One after another took the Animagus potion, while the others watched curiously in what kind of animal the person that had taken the potion was going to transform.

Harry excitedly watched as Hermione transformed into a snowy white owl. '_Just like Hedwig_,' he mused. '_Oh, how much I envy her; she'll be able to fly without a broom. I wished I could become a bird too_.'

Finally, it was Harry's turn. He anxiously gulped down the potion, noticing that everything became black for an instant, before his field of vision all of a sudden greatly expanded, and he could see wings all around himself. '_What am I_?' he thought, trying to look at himself. However, he could only see blue feathers.

"A water phoenix," he heard his Head of House commend his form, causing him to try to do a few happy but uncertain steps on his bird's feet, before he automatically transformed back much too soon.

While the students had transformed, Professor Snape had taken magical photos of all of their Animagus forms, which he handed over to the students as soon as all of them were finished with their transformation.

"All right; now we're going to commence with our first practice," McGonagall told them. "Please watch your picture closely, so that you know your form as well as possible. Then you try to change your left arm into the left front leg, wing, or whatever your animal has instead of your arm. Please don't be discouraged if it doesn't work. If you're really lucky, you might be able to transform your left arm by the end of the week."

Harry and his seven classmates did their best, but when they ended the practice at dinnertime, none of them had managed to change the tiniest bit of their bodies. After dinner, they were instructed to spend the evening in the library in order to find out as much as possible about their animal.

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By the time Harry went to bed, he noticed that his throat was becoming really sore instead of just being scratchy. '_Well, no wonder after spending three hours in the rain doing garden work this morning_,' he mused, pondering if he should tell Blaise that he didn't want to go for a swim during the night. However, he was so glad to get along with the Slytherin so far that he didn't voice his thoughts but immediately agreed when Blaise asked if they should pull through with the idea.

"But how will we get out of the house? Maybe they have even charms on the doors," he replied worriedly, while he pulled his swimming trunks under his pyjamas. "Shall we ask Dobby, if he can take us out to the lake?"

"That's a good idea," Blaise agreed, and Harry called Dobby.

"Yes, I wills wake yous up at midnight and takes yous to the lake and back," Dobby promised and popped away only seconds before Professor Snape entered the room.

"Is everything all right here?" the teacher asked in a voice that held no malice, causing Harry to look at him in surprise.

"Yes, sir," both boys replied, and the teacher nox-ed the lights out, leaving the door a crack open as he left the room.

At midnight, Dobby woke the two boys up and popped them out in the park. "Please don't tells the professors that I brought you here. I is leaving the kitchen door open, so that you cans comes in whenever you want," the small elf told them, before he vanished with a pop.

Harry and Blaise quickly took off their pyjamas and headed into the lake. "Oh, the water is much warmer than that of the lake at Hogwarts," Harry said in surprise.

"Of course; remember we're in Italy," Blaise replied and proceeded to swim, followed by his roommate.

Thirty minutes later, Harry was beginning to shiver in spite of the warm water. "I'm getting cold, so I'll go out and wait for you on the beach," he told the other boy, who gave him a look of concern, if Harry could interpret the boy's expression correctly in the moon light.

"You sound a bit hoarse. Are you all right, Potter?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Could you call me Harry though?"

Blaise laughed. "All right; I'm Blaise then. Nice to meet you, Harry. Let's go back to bed; we wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

The two boys threw drying charms at each other, put on their pyjamas, and quickly entered the building through the open kitchen door, closing it behind them. When they reached their room, Blaise silently closed the door behind them and threw a silencing charm at the door.

"What are you doing?" Harry enquired, coughing.

"I just wanted to talk with you for a moment without Professor Snape listening in. Since you obviously caught a cold, there are two options. You can either ask Snape for Pepper-up potion in the morning and be forced to spend the day in bed, or you call Dobby and ask him to bring you some without alerting the teachers."

"That's a good idea," Harry croaked and called Dobby, who quickly popped to Hogwarts and brought Harry a phial with Pepper-up potion.

"Ah, that's much better; thanks a lot, Dobby," Harry said gratefully after gulping down the potion.

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In the morning, Harry felt much better. Blaise stepped over to Harry and reached out to feel his forehead. "You're still a bit warm though, and if you feel unwell, you should tell Professor Snape, before it gets worse."

Harry nodded, and the two boys headed down to the dining room right in time for breakfast. During the morning, the students tried again to transform their left arms, while McGonagall went from one to the next giving advice and Professor Snape sat there watching them until his colleague called him over. "Severus, perhaps you could work with Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter," she suggested, causing her students to throw her unbelieving looks. "Remember that Albus was better able to help you than I," she reminded the teacher when he joined them.

"I know, Minerva," Snape replied and turned to Hermione and Harry. "Look exactly how I do it. I will only change my left arm right now."

The two Gryffindors watched in amazement as the teacher's arm turned into a black wing. "A raven?" Hermione guessed.

"Exactly, Ms. Granger. Imagine your left wing and try to change your arm accordingly," the teacher advised them in a soft, silky voice that made Harry curiously look at the teacher once more.

'_He seems much nicer than at Hogwarts_,' he mused astonished, while he tried to follow the teacher's example. By the end of the morning class, Harry finally managed to transform his arm into the blue wings of his phoenix form.

"Harry!" he suddenly heard Hermione shout, and only when he looked up in bewilderment, he noticed that his arm was gone.

Harry flapped his wing a few times, noticing that his feathers were very beautiful.

"A pity that I can't give points to Gryffindor; very well done, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall commended the boy, before she ended the practice for the morning.

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In the afternoon, the group visited a magical day school situated in the suburbs of Rome. The children only had classes until four o'clock in the afternoon, before they took the Floo network to return to their parents. After a tour around the school, the sixth year students of the Italian school took care of their guests while the teachers met with their Italian colleagues. When the students returned home at four o'clock the Potions professor met the guests and invited them to the huge Potions laboratories, which were extremely impressive even to students for whom Potions didn't belong to the favourite subjects like Harry and Neville.

"We should have something like that at Hogwarts," Hermione blurted out in complete amazement, causing the whole group to laugh.

"Here in our school, we have two important subjects," the Potions professor explained, "one is Divination and one is Potions. However, while we have the better facilities you have the better teacher. Professor Snape is the best Potions Master worldwide at this stage."

"We know that, Professor," Hermione replied, "but it would be nice to have better facilities as well."

"Maybe even I would be able to brew better in such surroundings," Neville spoke up, causing the whole group to laugh.

"You could speak to Professor Dumbledore about the matter," Snape suggested.

"Believe me; we will do that," Hermione promised, before suddenly a quick motion behind her caught everyone's eye.

While they were talking, Harry suddenly noticed that his vision was getting blurry and he was seeing stars, before everything turned black and he noticed himself falling down.

An instant later, Harry opened his eyes. "What happened?" he asked in confusion, noticing that he was lying on the floor with a pillow under his head while everyone was watching him in concern. He quickly tried to sit up, but felt himself being pushed down again.

"Stay put, Mr. Potter, and tell me what exactly happened. Did everything just turn black?" Professor Snape enquired, speaking in a soft silky voice.

"No, I saw stars," Harry stammered, "and then everything turned black."

"All right, then it's probably because his blood pressure is too low," Snape talked to McGonagall, while his Italian colleague returned with the school nurse, who pointed her wand at Harry's arm and confirmed Snape's assumption, before she told him, which potion he had to brew for the boy and how much of it he would need.

"He should eat more and drink coffee. Fortunately, he doesn't have a concussion in spite of hitting the hard stone floor, but he might get a headache later on and should rest today," the nurse explained.

Back to their domicile, the students were allowed to do what they wanted during the last hour until dinner, while Snape and McGonagall accompanied Harry to his room and made him lie down on his bed.

"Harry, are you feeling all right?" his Head of House asked in obvious concern.

"I'm fine," Harry replied quickly, causing the teachers to frown.

"Well, you have to make sure that you eat properly," Snape instructed him before he asked, "I take it that your relatives didn't feed you."

Noticing that it was more a statement than a question, Harry merely nodded his head.

"How bad is your headache?" the teacher asked, "and I need to know exactly, so that I know which Potion you'll need.

"Hurts a bit," Harry replied, feeling completely embarrassed, especially when he all of a sudden felt the Potion Master's cool hand on his forehead.

"You need a fever reducer as well, Mr. Potter, which is strange, because the nurse said you didn't have a concussion. I want you to remain in bed for the rest of today except for dinner, and when you're not better in the morning, we'll ask Madam Pomfrey to come and check on you," Snape decided, before he excused himself to head to the Potions lab in the cellar.

Professor McGonagall sat down on the edge of Harry's bed and conjured a cool cloth, gently adjusting it on Harry's forehead. "Harry, we can only help you concerning your home life, if you tell us about the Dursleys," she said softly.

Harry threw his Head of House a surprised look. "What should I tell you? That they hate me? I thought you'd already know that, considering that my first Hogwarts letter was addressed to '_the cupboard under the stairs_' and that I begged Professor Dumbledore each summer not to send me back there. Apart from that, Professor Snape watched lots of memories about my home life when he tried to teach me Occlumency last year."

McGonagall's face turned white. Of course she had known that the Dursleys were horrible persons but she hadn't imagined the situation for her little lion so bad. Harry told the stunned teacher about his home life, before Snape entered the room to give Harry his potions and call him and his Head of House for dinner.

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After dinner, Harry was sent to bed again and due to his worsening headache he didn't even protest. His classmates took turns sitting with him, talking to him in quiet voices. Blaise was the last to keep him company and told him that the teachers would come to check on him at the beginning of curfew, which was a few minutes later.

When the teachers arrived, Snape sat down on the edge of Harry's bed and felt his forehead, frowning. He pulled a magical ear thermometer out of his robe pocket, which he stuck in Harry's left ear for a moment, causing the thermometer to flare orange. "38.3 (101) degrees," the professor stated, giving McGonagall a concerned look. "Maybe he has a concussion in spite of what the nurse told us. Should we call Poppy?"

"Professor, I think I might have a cold," Harry spoke up. "My throat is a bit sore."

The teacher lit the tip of his wand and peered into Harry's mouth, finally nodding contentedly. "Yes, you have a slight throat infection." He called Dobby and asked him for two potions, which he made Harry drink, noticing that the boy obviously felt bad enough not to question him.

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In the morning, Harry still had a splitting headache. However, remembering what Dumbledore had told them what would happen to those, who didn't give their best, he replied, "No, sir," when Snape asked him if his head still hurt.

"Your throat is still red and you're running a temperature. I suggest that you stay in bed and we'll see how you are at lunchtime," Snape told him in a surprisingly gentle voice, causing Harry to throw him a pleading look.

"No, Professor, please let me attend the class. I feel fine," he told the professor, ignoring his roommate, who was rolling his eyes at him.

"All right," Snape agreed, "provided that you promise to go back to bed if you feel worse."

Harry more or less spent the morning watching the others, who had yet to transform their left arm, while he kept the wing on his left side and tried to transform his right arm from time to time, noticing that his headache worsened with each try.

While they were still practising, Professor Snape was called to the fireplace. When he returned a few minutes later, he told his colleague, "Our visit to the Ministry of Magic won't take place today but on Thursday, and we can't visit the library today instead but only tomorrow. So we should go to the town today."

"All right," McGonagall replied hesitantly, throwing Harry a worried glance.

"I can take the group alone, and you can remain here with Harry," Snape added in a small voice. "Let's see how he is after lunch, and then we'll decide."

After lunch, Harry hesitantly asked McGonagall if the trip to the town was being considered as a study excursion or a fun trip, causing the professor to give him a stern look and reply, "A trip to Diagon Alley would hardly be considered useful for your studies, Mr. Potter."

The teacher's expression softened immensely when Harry gave back, "All right, Professor; I wouldn't wish to miss a study excursion, but in that case I'd like to stay here today." Harry even managed to convince the teachers that he would well be able to stay on his own, especially with Dobby and Twinkle in the house with him.

Shortly before the others left, Professor Snape entered Harry's room, closely followed by Hermione. The teacher quickly checked on Harry and made him drink two potions, stating, "It was a wise decision to remain here today. With the fever you're running you're clearly not well enough to gallivant through the town. I suggest that you remain in bed the whole afternoon. We'll be back in time for dinner."

"Harry, shall I stay with you?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"No, Hermione; enjoy your afternoon; I'll listen to Professor Snape and try to sleep for a while.

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On the next day, Harry's condition improved slightly, so that he could convince Professor Snape to let him join the others for their visit to the Italian Ministry of Magic. The group talked with several people, who explained how their specific divisions within the Ministry worked. Hermione asked many questions, which the Ministry employees seemed happy to answer, while Harry found the whole excursion quite boring.

On their way through the Ministry, Harry suddenly noticed that he was getting dizzy again. However, the instant, in which colourful stars appeared in front of his eyes, he managed to sit down on a step of the stairs they were just descending.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Blaise asked immediately.

"I just felt as if I was going to faint again," Harry admitted in a small voice. "I'd like to sit here for a while. Could you please tell Snape or McGonagall without alerting all the others?"

"Of course," Blaise promised, and an instant later, Snape sat on the step next to Harry, giving him a piercing look, before he handed him a potion, which Harry gulped down gratefully.

"I'm sorry, Professor; thank you," Harry mumbled. "It's probably all right again."

"Let's stay here until the others come back," Snape replied, pushing Harry back when he tried to get up from the stairs.

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On the next day when the group visited the magical library, Harry was not so lucky but fainted on their tour through the huge building. Fortunately, the teachers had tried to remain near the boy all the time and Professor Snape was fast enough to catch him before his head hit the stone floor again.

'_Where am I? What happened?_' Harry mused when his mind slowly turned back to consciousness. He found himself lying on a comfortable sofa within the huge library. Hermione and Professor McGonagall were sitting on the edge of the sofa talking to each other in low voices.

"It would be great to have such a library at home as well," Hermione whispered longingly.

McGonagall let out a small laugh. "Maybe that would be a job for you, Hermione. After your NEWTs, you could found such a library and try to find donators all over the country. Professor Dumbledore and I would try to get the Ministry to support you."

"Harry!" Hermione suddenly noticed that Harry had turned conscious again. "Are you all right?"

"Yes; I'm sorry," Harry replied, trying to sit up.

"No Harry, please wait until Professor Snape comes back. He just went to look for an Apparition area, so that he can take you back home," McGonagall instructed him in a soft voice.

"No Professor, I'm fine; please, I don't want to go home. I'll try and do everything you want, but please don't send me home," Harry whispered, panicking.

"Harry, it's all right. Nobody is going to send you home to the Dursleys. With 'home' I meant Professor Dumbledore's home here," McGonagall replied soothingly, before she stood up to make space for Snape, who had just returned.

He took the place at Harry's side and gripped Harry's wrist with one hand while he looked at his watch, before he finally released Harry's wrist and felt his forehead instead. "I'm going to take him home and call Poppy," he told his colleague.

"No Professors, please let me stay here; I'm fine," Harry begged the teachers.

"No, Harry, you just fainted a few minutes ago, and that was the third time in four days," McGonagall replied sternly. "We'll be back in time for dinner, which is in two hours."

"Exactly," Snape agreed, picking Harry up in his arms, and carried him out of the room to the apparition area, from where he apparated them back to the entrance hall of Dumbledore's house. The teacher made Harry sit on one of the sofas in the living room and headed to the fireplace to call the Headmaster.

"Hello Severus, my boy," Harry could hear Dumbledore's voice that was laced with concern. "Is something wrong that you call me at this time of the day?"

Snape sighed, before he replied, "Mr. Potter fainted three times in four days. We assume that the reason is extremely low blood pressure due to the fact that the Dursleys starved him over the summer. Moreover, he is feverish and is suffering from headaches, and we'd like Poppy to come and check on him. Is Poppy available at Hogwarts, so that you can send her over, or where can we contact her?"

"Of course Poppy is here in case you need her. She might be out for a few hours, but she'll return in time for dinner at the latest. I'll send her over as soon as she's back. Is everything else all right, Severus?"

"Yes, Albus, thank you," Snape replied and ended the Floo connection, turning to Harry.

"I don't know if you heard what the Headmaster told me, but Madam Pomfrey is not at the castle at the moment; she'll be back around dinnertime and come here as soon as possible."

"I'm sorry, Professor, I'm fine. If you want to return to the library, I'll be fine on my own here," Harry said hesitantly.

"Harry, you're not fine, and I don't intend to leave you alone here." He sat down on the edge of the sofa and once more felt Harry's pulse and forehead, before he told Harry to stay put while he went to fetch a few potions.

Harry visibly relaxed after gulping the potions down. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep in the blink of an eye. He woke up to the excited voices of his classmates all around him. He sat up and smiled at his classmates. '_It's funny_,' he thought. '_We're all in different Houses and weren't even friends before we came here, but now we're all very close to each other. Even the professors have begun to call us with our first names. I really like it here_.'

All of a sudden, the fireplace flared and Madam Pomfrey stepped out. While McGonagall quickly filled her in what was wrong with Harry, Snape shooed all of his classmates away from the sofa, so that Poppy could check on the boy.

"Hello Madam Pomfrey; I'm sorry that you had to come here," Harry mumbled anxiously, afraid that the Healer would decide to send him back home.

"That's no problem at all, Mr. Potter, but fainting in libraries is something, which I don't like at all," Pomfrey replied gently and waved her wand at the boy, frowning at the results. Turning to McGonagall and Snape, she sighed. "His blood pressure is indeed dangerously low. He has to eat more, and he needs the potion to raise the blood pressure every morning and at lunchtime for the next few weeks. I'll check on him at school on a daily basis until I can see a solid improvement."

Harry sighed in relief. '_That doesn't sound too bad_,' he thought.

However, the Healer continued, "The fever he is running results from a concussion. Did he hit the floor when he fainted?"

Snape quickly explained what the Mediwitch at the school, who had checked on Harry, had told them, but Pomfrey shook her head. "No Severus, he definitely has a concussion and he needs to rest for the next few days, at least until his headache and fever are completely gone. Did you hear that, Mr. Potter? And no magic for at least a week; let's say until I tell you that you may do magic again."

"Oh no!" Harry threw the Healer a horrified look. "But..."

"No buts, Mr. Potter. I should take you with me to Hogwarts," Pomfrey replied thoughtfully.

"Poppy," McGonagall jumped into the conversation. "Don't take him back to Hogwarts. We'll be able to look after him. Albus would only send him back to his relatives."

"We can't risk that, Poppy, knowing that it's their fault that he's ill in the first place," Snape agreed with his colleague.

"All right, Mr. Potter, I'll leave you here, but I expect you to do exactly what Professors McGonagall and Snape tell you. You may not do any magic, and you have to rest as much as possible. I'll come and check on you every evening between dinner and curfew."

As soon as Madam Pomfrey had taken the Floo back to Hogwarts, Harry turned to his two teachers. "Thank you, Professors, for saving me from going back to my relatives."

"You're welcome, Harry," both replied simultaneously.

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There were only two more days of training left, during which Harry still suffered from a bad headache and a fever. However, knowing that they would hardly be able to keep Harry in bed, the professors allowed him to rest on one of the sofas in the practice room, so that he could watch his classmates, while they practised to transform their left arms. '_It's good to know that I already managed to transform my left arm_,' Harry mused on Friday morning, unconsciously trying to transform his right arm.

"Harry, you're not allowed to do magic, and if you can't obey, you'll have to go to bed," McGonagall, who had been watching Harry, admonished him lightly at the sight of his right phoenix wing.

"I'm sorry, Professor, it wasn't intentionally," Harry quickly explained, causing Snape to raise an eyebrow at the boy.

In the afternoon, the group went to visit another magical school that was specialised on Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. However, Harry was not allowed to go, and Professor McGonagall decided to stay at home with Harry, since his condition had worsened after his unintentional transformation work in the morning. The professor sat on the edge of Harry's bed, where Professor Snape had ordered him after noticing that his fever spiked again. She conjured a cold cloth, gently wiping his flushed face.

"You have to be careful, Harry," she told him, "I know that you didn't mean to do magic this morning, but the Animagus transformation affords especially much magic, and if you don't want to spend the first week of the school year in the hospital wing, you mustn't do it again."

"I'll try," Harry replied, sighing. "I know, but I completely forgot that I'm not allowed to do magic, probably because I was watching the others all the time. I'm glad that I can already transform my arms; otherwise it would be much more unnerving to watch the others practise."

"I believe that immediately," McGonagall smiled. "You're already very advanced, Harry, and we're going to meet twice a week to continue our class when we're back to Hogwarts."

"That's great," Harry replied happily, "not only because of the Animagus training, but also because we all got so close during this week, but we're all in different Houses at Hogwarts, so it'll be great to be able to meet twice a week."

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

On Saturday afternoon, the students were allowed to do what they wanted. Since most of them wanted to visit the town once more to buy presents, Professor McGonagall accompanied the group to the Italian Diagon Alley, while the Potions Master stayed at home with Harry.

"Professor, you really don't have to stay here with me; I'm fine on my own," Harry told the teacher, feeling very uncomfortable that the teachers meant they had to keep him company. '_On the other hand it's nice. They both behave like parents towards me_,' he thought, feeling very happy.

"I thought we could play a game of chess together, if you feel well enough," the teacher suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"I'd like that, but I'm not good at all," Harry replied hesitantly, causing the professor to begin teaching him how to properly play wizard's chess. By the time the others returned from their excursion, he had the impression as if he had learnt a lot during the afternoon.

"Thanks a lot, Professor, and thank you so much for letting me stay here, although I couldn't do magic during the last few days."

"You're welcome Harry," Snape replied, adding thoughtfully, "There is something else I'd like to speak with you about. Due to the fact that you revealed several things about your so-called family, Professor McGonagall and I have decided to try to get the guardianship over you. So far, the Headmaster wouldn't have allowed us to do so; however, since even Madam Pomfrey can confirm that you were ill because of the neglect by your family, we expect Professor Dumbledore to agree, so that you won't have to return to the Dursleys at all, provided that that is what you want."

"Of course, Professor," Harry replied eagerly. "I'd love you and Professor McGonagall to become my guardians."

"Oh Harry, that's brilliant," Hermione commentated when Harry told her the story on Sunday afternoon. "Then you'll have a real family."

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it, and I know that it will be great because they already behaved like parents this week. I'm so happy, Hermione," Harry replied, absentmindedly holding on to the stuffed snake that would take them back to Hogwarts.

**The End**

_As you know, I'm not a native speaker of English; please excuse my mistakes or tell me, so that I can correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to __Mrs. Rowling__, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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